(It'll get done.)

When my 14 yr old was a baby she would do the funniest thing when she was angry. The only thing I could relate it to, was a sitting sumo wrestler flexing their arms down towards the ground- face turning red as she growled. She would do this and we would laugh, it was comical!

As she got older, she dealt with her frustrations pretty well- but when she would get overwhelmed all of a sudden this little tongue would come out, her cheeks would puff out and she would blow… a raspberry. This wasn’t any wet raspberry- it was a very forced tongue blow and it was a signature ‘Gracie ‘move!
Now, some people might get offended if their child was to blow raspberries at them. This wasn’t one of ‘those’ raspberries. She wasn’t foo-fooing us or telling us off. This was a genuine move of anger management that my daughter taught herself. She didn’t hit, she didn’t bite or yell or scream, and it only happened when she was was overwhelmed with frustration she didn’t know what to do.

As she got older, she has learned to make jokes with her wit in frustrating situations- and she is pretty fast on her feet with it. But recently after reminiscing of her tongue- blowing days, something occurred to me. Blowing a hard raspberry is a REALLY great way to blow off steam! It takes a lot of force, is fairly quiet and is non-aggressive. You could excuse yourself to the bathroom and even do it into a napkin where people would assume you are blowing your nose. You could do it into your pillow. It’s actually MORE effective than screaming!

As long as this is not done at another person, I think it’s a brilliant way to deal with anger!